Saturday, July 3, 2010

An Enchanted Evening

Have you ever read the book, or have seen the movie "Ella Enchanted"? I'll admit, I haven't read the book (yet), but I LOVE the movie. I have however, read another book written by the same author of Ella Enchanted called "Writing Magic".

If you are into fictional writing, no matter what the genre, you need to read this book. It's written for child writers age 10 and up, but holds a wealth of information even the author, Gail Carson Levine, uses in writing her current books. Gail Carson Levine is known for taking the traditional fairy tales and turning them upside down. I love that and am using that creativity for my current writing project.

This past Monday, I happened to be checking my Twitter feed when the name Gail Carson Levine almost popped off the screen at me. It was a post by my favorite bookstore, Changing Hands Books, announcing that she would be doing a book reading THAT NIGHT at the store! I had been cleaning all day and was quite smelly, but I had enough time to shower and change and get a decent seat. I also thought to bring one of my two copies of "Writing Magic" with me, and I'm glad I did, as the bookstore ran out of the copies of the latest book she was signing, with the illustrator of the book, David Christiana. The new book is called, "Fairies and The Quest For Neverland" and is based on the tale of Peter Pan.

The evening was fabulous, Gail read a snippet from her new book and David talked about (while demonstrating) on how to draw a dragon. The books are being adapted into some of the Fairies movies from Disney.

Here are a few pictures from the event. I was trying not to be too disruptive with the camera, so I apologize in advance for the pictures.

Afterwards, I stopped off at the connecting restaurant to the bookstore, which is Wildflower Bread Company. If you've never been to one, find one and go. I had the Turkey Brie, Lemonade, and a low fat chocolate muffin for dessert. Delicious only begins to describe their food.

Some of my friends whom I've spoken with this past week have never heard of Ella Enchanted, so here is the trailer for the movie.

3 comments:

It sounds like you had a really enjoyable evening. I loved the movie and (sorry Shellee) didn't think so far as to realize it was based on a book until I saw some note about it on Goodreads. I would love to read it. I like the twists of the story. Very imaginative!

One of my Canadian friends on Facebook doesn't know about Ella Enchanted.

You know how I love all things Cinderella, and this is a different take on the story.

But, man, she is such a neat lady. She's funny and very humble, letting the illustrator take up most of the time with talking about how to draw.

Alyssa would have loved going, but I only had 1 hour notice about the event. All of the other kids who were there were all girls. A few of us noticed it. I ended up sitting with teachers who were also at the event.